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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26768554">'Til Morning Comes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWorkoftheHeart/pseuds/TheWorkoftheHeart'>TheWorkoftheHeart</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Piece</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Insomnia, Love Stories, M/M, Post-Whole Cake Island, Pre-Wano Arc (One Piece), Sanji Is Not A Vinsmoke, Sleepiness, Storytelling, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:33:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,600</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26768554</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWorkoftheHeart/pseuds/TheWorkoftheHeart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was always busy, being a Straw Hat pirate-- your life was full of peaks and valleys, battles and peace, give and take.</p><p>Oddly enough, Usopp didn’t mind anymore. He always knew, deep down, that no matter how great the stress, peace would come crawling in its wake to envelop him whole.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Usopp/Vinsmoke Sanji</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>'Til Morning Comes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Usopp was having trouble sleeping. His mind was too occupied with thoughts; none particularly pleasant, nor unpleasant all the same. Instead, his thoughts just seemed to race around his sleep-hazed head, ideas of inventions and grandiose stories and events of the past months. It was always busy, being a Straw Hat pirate-- your life was full of peaks and valleys, battles and peace, give and take.</p><p>Oddly enough, Usopp didn’t mind anymore. He always knew, deep down, that no matter how great the stress, peace would come crawling in its wake to envelop him whole.</p><p>Usopp sighed quietly in the silence of the men’s dormitories, crossing one leg over his knee and propping his arms behind his head. He stared at the wooden ceiling, listened to the snores of his crew and the hushed crashing of waves; he watched the moonlight paint fluttering reflections of ocean light up above through the porthole windows behind him. His mind began to find stories in them, and he allowed them to form into tales of battles among the stars and journeys through endless blizzards.</p><p>There were the faint sounds of stirring below him. It was almost too silent to hear, but because Usopp had been awake for some time, he was alert enough to notice. Careful to keep from waking the others, he leaned over the edge of his bed and peeked down below him to see Sanji laying awake. His eyes were wide and misty as they seemed to look past the sniper altogether-- eventually, though, the dissociated cloudiness left his vision, and he offered Usopp a smile in its wake. Despite the darkness, Usopp could see the melancholy that tugged at the edge of Sanji’s lips.</p><p>“Sorry to wake you,” Sanji whispered, turning his head as though he was embarrassed to be caught awake at this hour. Usopp shook his head, his vision never moving from the chef on the bed below.</p><p>“You didn’t, it’s okay,” he assured, earning Sanji’s attention again. Usopp paused. “Are <i>you</i> okay?”</p><p>Sanji’s smile seemed to tremor. His lips pursed and his eyes averted from the sniper’s gaze above him; his expression walked the line between truth and dishonesty, as though he were balancing on a tightrope between both ends in an attempt to keep a neutral standing. Finally, his footing stumbled, and his face seemed to lightly scrunch into displeasure. He curled his elbow over his face to hide the reaction that Usopp already knew was coming. Even in darkness, the tremor of his shoulders was visible, rattling him like a leaf in a storm.</p><p>Usopp gripped the edge of the bed and swung himself down. He made sure to land on the floor as quietly as possible, and his eyes quickly darted around the room to ensure no one else was awake before he kneeled down at Sanji’s side. He slipped a hand into smooth blond hair, uncurling the knots, and he felt Sanji’s body release tension with each gentle touch. Usopp wished he knew what caused all this pain; he’d been off in Wano before Nami had urgently begged him to meet them at Big Mom’s home. He’d returned to carnage, to tears, to tension; Sanji had seemed to walk on eggshells as instinctively as he could dice vegetables with a perfectly-sharpened knife. No one spoke about what happened, and Usopp didn’t press.</p><p>Based on Sanji’s tears now, though, he could only assume the worst of the outcome. They’d survived, sure, but not without the scars to show for it.</p><p>“It’s alright,” Usopp whispered, but he wasn’t sure if things truly were. His fingers moved like patchwork through strands of blond hair. “Do you mind if I..?”</p><p>Sanji didn’t wait for him to finish before he shuffled to the edge of the bed, leaving room behind himself for Usopp to slip in. Usopp crept to the other side and eased down into the warmth of the sheets, covering himself with the blankets before wrapping one arm taut around Sanji’s waist and placing his other so he could wipe stray tears from his cheeks. The way he leaned into Usopp’s hold led him to believe he hadn’t been touched lovingly in quite some time. He cursed himself for not noticing any sooner.</p><p>They stayed like this for a while. Sanji sobbed quietly into his fist, shaking with each uneven breath he gave, and Usopp kept him grounded, tracing patterns in Sanji’s scalp and wiping glistening tears away from flushed red cheeks. Usopp’s gentle motions seemed to be helping, slowly but surely; Sanji’s sobs were more irregular, heavy though they still were. Usopp kissed the back of his head gently before readjusting himself to whisper into his ear.</p><p>“Do you want me to tell you a story to help get your mind off of it?”</p><p>Sanji pressed his head back into Usopp, gently and slowly. He gave some affirmative hum that barely registered in Usopp’s mind, but once he realized it, he took no time at all to conjure a tale in his mind to be told.</p><p>“Many years ago, there was a pirate on the East Blue. He was well-renowned and feared by all who dared cross paths with him.” Usopp’s voice was soft, tentative in its tale. “He left a trail of destruction and victory in his wake. Behind him was a crew of 8,000 men, but none compared in strength to that of their incredible captain.”</p><p>Faintly, Sanji’s face mustered a smile-- it was one difficult to see over his shoulder, but Usopp recognized it just as easily as Sanji could recognize the story. It filled him with a sense of pride. He brushed his hand through the chef’s hair again, watching him further relax into his hold.</p><p>“On a fateful summer day, the mighty captain met a man with even greater power than he! Astounded, he was, that someone could sway the world so easily. Of course, the captain joined him, as the powerful stranger recognized his strength as a warrior of the seas. They traveled many cities and many expanses of open water, until finally, the captain came across the most beautiful man he’d ever seen in his life.”</p><p>The pride Usopp felt when Sanji blushed was immeasurable. His smile grew wider, and he hid part of his face in his sheets, chuckling softly. </p><p>“Usopp,” Sanji whispered, and his voice was filled with sweet embarrassment, flattery, and the inability to accept both. Usopp just laughed quietly, kissing the back of his partner’s head.</p><p>“The captain couldn’t believe the person he’d seen before him. He was strong, graceful in every way he wasn’t-- and when they shook hands, the captain was captivated by how kind his touch was. He’d have been a fool to not chase after him. The beautiful man ended up among his ranks, and for the first time, the captain didn’t know what to do. Everything he wanted to ever say just didn’t sound right. He didn’t sound like a warrior at all! He just sounded like a regular man, and he thought <i>no, that wouldn’t do.</i> So he finally went to the beautiful man himself and spoke to him about it.</p><p>“He’d said, ‘beautiful man, I want to tell you something, but I can’t seem to find the words to say it’. And do you know what the beautiful man said to him?”</p><p>Sanji rolled over from where he was laying, readjusting himself in Usopp’s grasp so his arms were gently holding his waist and Usopp could still play with his hair. Sanji’s eyes were still misty from crying, but his face was instead flushed with something that could only be described as <i>love</i>. He <i>loved</i> the overzealous way Usopp told stories, and this one in particular was always his favorite.</p><p>He met his eyes in the darkness, smiling at him softly. “What?” he responded.</p><p>Usopp grinned. “He said, ‘then don’t tell me, just show me’. So the captain leaned forward, very slowly, and...”</p><p>He kissed Sanji softly. Sanji hummed, all the tension in his body falling away. He held Usopp close to his chest as though if he were to let go, he’d wake up from a beautiful dream, a dream better than every woman he’d ever sought after, a dream better than a place where all the seas collide. No, he didn’t want this to <i>ever</i> end; this was the ending to the story, a story that needed no further explanations. It ended with a kiss, with love, with mutual understanding that what they had was more important than words.</p><p>Usopp carefully pulled back, and Sanji let him. Usopp smiled, showing his teeth, and he pecked Sanji one more time on the lips.</p><p>“That’s their story,” he finished.</p><p>Sanji chuckled. “That’s my favorite one, my dove,” he hummed, cradling Usopp’s cheek in his hand. “I want you to tell me it again and again.”</p><p>“Maybe another night,” Usopp suggested, finally letting himself relax against the pillows. Sanji followed suit and quickly found himself overtaken with a wave of exhaustion-- he supposed all the crying had finally caught up to him. He felt himself drifting off into an abyss of sleep, and he took note that his eyes felt more comfortable closed than they did open. He nestled himself into Usopp’s embrace, feeling Usopp kiss his forehead.</p><p>“Darling?” Sanji asked, though he could hardly recognize the sound of his own voice.</p><p>“Mhm?”</p><p>“You won’t leave, right?”</p><p>Usopp shook his head. “Of course not, Sanji. I’ll be right here ‘til morning comes.”</p><p>When Sanji fell asleep again, it was with a smile painted on his lips.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you all enjoyed this! I've never written SanUso before, but this idea seemed to fit their dynamic so incredibly well and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to test their relationship for the first time. I hope it was a good read!</p><p>If you enjoyed this, please consider following me on Twitter, @hanahana_no__mi! </p><p>Thank you all so much! Lots of love!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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